Birthday boy Grosjean gets paid

Whilst former teammate Kimi Raikkonen went public over his lack of payment late last year, subsequently threatening to miss the last two races before succumbing to back pain, teammate Grosjean remained schtum.

However, amidst talk of a 'driver strike' as other drivers reveal that they too are awaiting payment for services rendered, the Frenchman has confirmed that his team has now settled its account.

"Since the new management has been in place, everything has been sorted and is good," he told reporters in Shanghai. "But what happened was certainly not the way I wanted things to go. I never opened my mouth in front of the media because it was my own business, my personal thing.

"Kimi kind of launched the whole thing, that drivers hadn't been paid and so on," he added. "It wasn't easy for the guys, but things have now been made right."

Asked if the team's failure to pay him had left him demotivated, the Frenchman, who was one of the true starts of 2013, said: "No because I don't do this for money, I do it for me... although at some stages I was a bit worried for my rent!"